If you’ve spent hours grinding through mid-rank quests in Monster Hunter Wilds and hit a wall upgrading your first elemental-resistant armor set, you’ve probably come across a request for the monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic as a required material. Unlike most common upgrade items, it doesn’t drop from standard monster carves or quest rewards, so lots of players waste days hunting the wrong targets trying to track it down. This guide breaks down exactly where to find it, how to farm it without wasting time, what gear you can make with it, and common mistakes to skip so you can get back to hunting faster.
What Exactly Is the Monster Hunter Wilds Dragonbone Relic?
The monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic is a rare archeological material left over from ancient dragon nesting grounds scattered across the more remote biomes of the Wilds map. It’s not a monster drop, so you won’t get it from carving Rathian, breaking Anjanath parts, or even clearing the first elder dragon hunt. I spent three full runs hunting tempered Barroth thinking it would drop the relic before I realized I was looking in the entirely wrong place.
It only spawns in designated ancient ruin gathering nodes, which are marked with small, glowing blue runes on rock faces and cave walls once you level up your scoutflies for that region. Nodes are usually hidden off the main quest paths, so you’ll have to do a bit of exploring to find them, even if you’ve already unlocked the full map for that biome. The relic itself looks like a weathered, carved bone shard with faint blue glowing lines along its edges, so it’s hard to miss once you get close to a node.
Exact Locations to Find Dragonbone Relic Spawns
You won’t find any monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic spawns in the starting forest biome, no matter how many gathering nodes you check. You first need to unlock the second major map area, the Ashfall Coastal Region, to access any relic nodes. Most spawns are concentrated in two specific zones of this map, with extra high-rank nodes opening up once you progress past the main story’s halfway point.
These are the three most reliable farming routes I’ve tested across 4 playthroughs:
If you’re playing with a squad, split up to cover more nodes at once, and share locations via your in-game ping system to cut farming time in half. Nodes are shared across all players in the same session, so you don’t have to worry about fighting over spawns, and everyone gets their own separate drop when they interact with a node.
Best Ways to Farm Dragonbone Relic Efficiently
Even if you know all the spawn locations, farming the monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic can feel like a slog if you don’t use a few simple tricks to speed up the process. These tips cut my total farming time for a full set of gear by almost 60% on my last playthrough, so they’re well worth following.
Always bring a gathering charm with +2 relic find before you start farming. This doubles the chance you get two relics per node instead of one, and it also boosts your odds of getting the higher-tier master rank version of the relic from high-rank nodes. You can craft the gathering charm early in low rank with just a few common bone and ore materials, so there’s no excuse not to have it.
If you complete the side quest “Ancient Coastal Relics” from the village archeologist, you unlock a permanent buff that makes relic nodes glow brighter on your mini-map, so you don’t waste time looking for hidden spots. The quest only requires you to turn in 3 standard relics, so it’s easy to complete as soon as you find your first few spawns.
You don’t need to hoard more than 12 standard dragonbone relics at a time. There are only 9 craftable low and high rank items that use the material, so once you have 12, you can stop farming and focus on other materials until you reach master rank. I made the mistake of hoarding 30 relics on my first playthrough, and I ended up selling most of them for barely any zenny, which was a total waste of hours of farming time.
Nodes respawn every 15 minutes if you leave the region and come back, or every 20 minutes if you stay in the same area. If you’re doing dedicated farming runs, I recommend fast traveling back to the nearest village after every full circuit, then heading right back to the map to reset all node spawns instantly. That trick saved me almost 10 minutes per hour of farming, so it’s well worth the extra loading screen time.
What Gear Can You Craft With Dragonbone Relic?
The monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic is used for some of the most useful early and mid-game gear in Wilds, so it’s worth farming as soon as you unlock the Ashfall region. Most players use it for either armor or weapon upgrades, and there are also a few quality of life items you can make with it to make hunts easier.
The Dragonveil Armor Set, which uses 4 relics total, is the best early armor for fighting the first elder dragon, Bazelgeuse, because it gives +15 dragon resistance and a fire blight protection buff. Each piece of the set also has a decent number of decoration slots, so you can customize it for your build of choice without having to swap to a different set for 10+ hours of playtime.
If you’re a melee or ranged weapon user, the relic-based weapon lines are some of the most versatile mid-game options available. The Relic Longsword and Relic Bow both have high raw damage stats and decent elemental slots, so they stay viable well into high rank, even when you start fighting tempered monsters. Each of these weapon lines uses 2 relics per upgrade, so you’ll need 6 total to max out either one in high rank.
There’s also a useful consumable you can craft with the relic: the relic scoutfly lure, which draws rare tempered monster spawns to your location for 10 minutes at a time. That’s super useful if you’re trying to hunt rare tempered monsters for exclusive parts, or if you’re trying to complete limited-time event quests that require specific rare spawns. Once you reach master rank, the higher quality version of the monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic is used to craft the endgame Dragonveil Alpha set, which is one of the best all-around armor sets for elemental builds, so you can revisit the farming routes once you hit master rank if you want to craft that set.
The monster hunter wilds dragonbone relic doesn’t have to be the frustrating roadblock that stops your progression dead in its tracks. Once you know exactly where to look, how to farm efficiently, and what to use it for, you’ll have all the materials you need to craft your favorite gear in no time. Don’t overcomplicate it, stick to the farming routes we outlined, and don’t hoard more than you need, and you’ll be well on your way to tackling even the hardest high-rank hunts without issue. If you have any other hidden farming spots you prefer, feel free to drop them in the comments below to help other hunters out.